Particularly in the case of strong sunshine, there is the problem that the usually dark (often black) decorative surface of the control panel becomes very hot. This can even lead to occupants being burnt when they touch it; moreover this produces a very high air temperature in the vehicle interior.
To alleviate these problems it has been proposed to provide, for example, air-conditioning systems which function in a stationary vehicle and are operated e.g. via solar cells in the sliding roof, in order in this way to achieve cooling of the vehicle interior as well as of the decorative surfaces.
However what is disadvantageous about this is that for this kind of cooling the air-conditioning system has to be very bulky in order to achieve effective cooling, particularly of the decorative surfaces.